Return to Virgin River

by Robyn Carr

  “I hear some men like it,” Kaylee said with a laugh. “I don’t know any, but that’s what I hear.”

  “So, I met a couple of your friends and Landry said you had quite the Thanksgiving party...”

  “Is that all he told you? Because my father arranged for my best friends to come up for Thanksgiving. There were six of us plus Landry, and it was amazing. We borrowed the Templetons’ house. It was a very special day. See, last year, we had my mom. She’d decided to discontinue chemo because she wasn’t sure what was worse, death or chemo, and she’d run out of time. By Thanksgiving she was feeling a little bit better so her best friend and I put together a girls-only Thanksgiving dinner. We knew it could be my mom’s last and we had the most wonderful time. This was almost a reunion.”

  “And your dad arranged it?” Mel asked. “I thought you didn’t get along with him very well.”

  “He started putting it together with Janette’s help and the generosity of the Templetons. And Landry. He picked up the crab legs and oysters and he certainly stocked the place with wine. He didn’t expect to share it with us but the girls wouldn’t let him leave. He had a wonderful time. It was perfect and just what I needed. That was the last time I saw my mom feeling good and having fun. This group of women—we blend just right. In fact, I think my friends like hanging out with me because they love my mom and her friends.”

  “That sounds fantastic. And how’s the book coming?”

  “I actually like it,” she said. “I’m closing in on the ending and should be finishing up in the next week.”

  “That will be such a relief, won’t it?”

  “You have no idea! I think coming up here saved me in a dozen ways. Getting that book done is at the top of the list.”

  “Oh? I would’ve put my money on Landry being at the top of the list,” Mel said.

  “He’s right up there, that’s for sure. What a guy.”

  “So, will you two be staying in touch after the holidays pass?”

  “I certainly hope so,” Kaylee said. “I don’t know when or how, but I hope so. I can’t imagine not having him in my life.”

  “Have you made any special plans for Christmas?” Mel asked.

  “Nah,” Kaylee said. “I’m just going to let Christmas wash over me. Maybe after this year I’ll be able to consider having fun on Christmas again, but...”

  “Your mom?”

  “She passed away on Christmas morning,” Kaylee said. “She’d been lingering. I don’t think she was in a great deal of pain at that point, thanks to Hospice and their drugs. I don’t know if I was relieved or devastated, but she left me while I was holding her hand.” She glanced away. “I try to hold on to the sweet memories, but then I get to feeling sorry for myself...”

  “I bet you have many sweet memories...”

  “It was usually just the two of us for Christmas. Sometimes we’d include friends—we had a lot of friends between us. But Christmas morning it was just the two of us. I’ve been writing for a dozen years or so and our joke was that I’d work in my pajamas, so every Christmas I got a new pair. Really nice, classy, soft and beautiful pajamas. She gave me other things, too, but the pajamas... They were always a treat. And last year, after she passed, I found a box under the tree and there they were, my annual pajamas. Red and silky and perfect. I’d been so preoccupied and distracted I didn’t even notice them and I have no idea how or when she got them. She must have ordered them online. She must have had the Hospice nurse wrap them.”

  “Aw, that’s so touching. I understand your feelings completely but if you decide to make plans or join us, I bet it would make your mother happy.”

  “I’m sure she wouldn’t want me to be all sad and depressed, but it’s kind of hard to be otherwise. That’s the day she left me. You know, she loved getting her nails done and while she was so sick that last month, the Hospice nurse would do her nails. After she had passed, I went to the kitchen to make the calls and when I went back to her bedroom, the nurse was doing her nails. It was the most tenderhearted thing I’ve ever seen.” She smiled at Mel. “I wish you could have met my mother. She was so funny and smart. You would have loved her.”

  “There’s no question in my mind,” Mel said. Then Mel’s cell phone rang. “Excuse me a second, Kaylee,” she said. Then she answered the phone. “Hey there, Marjorie, how’s it going? No, I’m afraid I haven’t made any progress and I’ve checked with everyone I know. Well, I’m not going to let the child go into foster care before Christmas. We’ll make room for her if we need to, but she’s not going to be alone at Christmas. I’ll let you know if I get anywhere.”

  Mel hung up the phone and rested her head in her hand for a moment, rubbing the bridge of her nose with her thumb and index finger. Then she looked at Kaylee. “Sorry.”

  “I take it you have a heavy load right now,” Kaylee said.

  “It’s very sad. My terminal patient. She has a child. It’s not unlike what happened with your mother. She was diagnosed less than a year ago. And she will leave behind a daughter. Oh, that’s right—you met Mallory. She’s only ten and there is no father in the picture. She’s the sweetest child I’ve ever known.”

  “I love Mallory! Remember our lunch? It was like a book club. Where will she go if she loses her mother?”

  “I think to the neighbors. They have a ten-year-old daughter and they’re good friends. The problem is, the neighbors are a family of eight pressed into a small house. But they’re good and generous people. We’re working on details. Mallory’s mother is single and there’s no family that I know of.” She shook her head. “If it gets to the county, they will put her in foster care.”

  “Surely they’ll find a good family,” Kaylee said.

  “Eventually. We suffer a shortage around here so they usually begin with emergency foster care and that often results in moving the kids around a bit. A few weeks here, a few weeks there, until a permanent home can be found that is right for everyone concerned.” Mel smiled and patted Kaylee’s hand. “Maybe her mother will make it till Christmas, but I highly doubt it. I’d give her another week at the most.”

  “Wow, and I thought I had it bad. At least I was thirty-five and able to look after myself.”

  “Yes, a lot of kinks in the road of life,” Mel said. “I’ll do my best. Now, are you staying a while? Because Jack is going to light up the tree at about six. You really should see it. Even if you don’t think you’re in the mood.”

  “I wouldn’t miss it.”

  * * *

  Landry was talking to Colin Riordan across the street from the bar, watching as the last of the lights were going up on the tree. He saw Brie wave from the porch of the bar and he waved back. Then she walked across the street to join him.

  “How are you doing?” she asked.

  “Excellent, and you?”

  “Very well. Getting ready for Christmas and all the hoopla. There’s a Christmas pageant that all the kids are involved in, a couple of parties, and Mike tells me it’s going to snow for real tonight, no more of that little dusting. I hope you have your snow tires ready. What’s going on with you for the holidays?”

  “It’ll be quiet. I’m going to offer to cook for Kaylee.”

  Colin excused himself and walked away a bit to talk to one of the guys on the tree crew.

  “I couldn’t have planned that better,” Brie said. “I have some news. Would you like to meet in my office or do you want it now?”

  “Now is good, if it’s not real complicated,” he said, bracing himself.

  “Your offer of a hundred thousand with no support payments has been accepted. If nothing more comes up to complicate the situation, I can write this up and get it before a judge before Christmas. It’ll take a few weeks to finalize things. And we should be prepared for your wife to change her mind or ask for more or...” She shrugged. “It doesn’t usually go so smooth
ly, but then yours is the first divorce I’ve handled where there’s been a ten-year separation.”

  “Wouldn’t it be nice if it just sailed through,” he said. “I talked to Laura on Thanksgiving. She was very emotional but she didn’t offer any arguments. And she didn’t mention she’d received my offer.”

  “So, you’re sure, then?”

  “Absolutely. I talked to the bank about a mortgage on some of the land.”

  “I’ll keep you posted,” she said.

  * * *

  The tree lighting was nothing short of amazing. The bar was overflowing with townsfolk, gathering to see the tree. It was so bright, Kaylee wondered if it could be seen in the next county. There was some carol singing, children running around wildly, lots of laughter, and then it began to snow. That thrilled the kids much more than the adults, since they wouldn’t have to drive in it.

  Kaylee saw Jack’s family all together around the tree and noticed that David and Emma had a little friend with them. It was Mallory. She was a beautiful little girl with almost blond pigtails trailing out from under her knit hat. Kaylee was relieved to see her laughing. But Kaylee knew how hard it was going to be for her when her mother died. The loneliness could be terrible.

  * * *

  As the days passed, of course little Mallory’s situation weighed on Kaylee’s mind, though she tried to shake it off. She turned her attention to her book and exercised all her willpower to focus. And at night when she was in Landry’s arms, she found at least temporary peace of mind. A few days later she called her editor.

  “I have some news, at last,” she said. “I’m sending you the completed manuscript.”

  “That’s wonderful news,” Simone said. “I’ll give it a read as soon as possible. I think I can get to it right away. Congratulations.”

  “I’m sure it needs some revision,” Kaylee said. “There were moments when I was so distracted, but that’s getting better inch by inch as time passes.”

  “It’s probably better than you think,” the editor said. “You just need some distance from it.”

  “Definitely. And I’m going to send you that other manuscript we talked about. I think it’s a romance or maybe women’s fiction.”

  “Just where did that idea come from?” Simone asked.

  “It started out as a kind of therapy for me. I was writing about making a fresh start in a small town. Hardly a new concept. I think every third book on the shelf starts with that trope. But then instead of writing about what’s been happening in my own life, I started writing about how I wished it would be, and that ended up with a love story. I like to read romance but I’m not confident I know how to write one. All I can say is it’s been a long time since I’ve had so much fun writing.”

  “I can’t wait,” Simone said. “Are they both coming today?”

  “Yes, I’ll email them to you when we finish our call.”

  Her editor laughed and said, “My favorite overachiever. After I’ve read and we’ve both had time to relax, we should talk about a new contract.”

  “I’m not in any great hurry,” Kaylee said. “I want to get through the holiday and see if my life takes on anything that resembles normalcy.”

  “Me, too,” Simone said. “I’ve come to the conclusion one should never make a major business decision while trying to survive Christmas. In your case, the challenge is even greater. How are you feeling these days? About coping with the loss of your mother?”

  “Sometimes I feel like I’ve come light-years and sometimes I feel like it’s fresh and raw. The latter comes slightly less often now. Let me tell you about my Thanksgiving, which was a dream.”

  Kaylee told her the whole story, starting with last year when her mother was experiencing some of her final positive days, to this year when the same group of women shared the holiday together. She could detect a little bit of emotion in her editor’s voice, noting she was touched by the event. “Oh, my heart,” Simone said. “What a beautiful story.”

  “It’s easier when I don’t have to miss my mother alone,” Kaylee said.

  After hitting the Send key, Kaylee did what she often did when a book was finally finished. She gave the little house a sound cleaning, answered the emails she’d been putting off for God knew how long, called Korby and Janette so they could celebrate with her for a little while, and drove to Clear River to hit the store. There hadn’t been any locally grown fruits and vegetables in a couple of months, but there was plenty of organic produce in the grocery, probably shipped in. She wanted to have a celebratory dinner. Knowing that Landry was a red meat kind of guy, she grabbed a couple of steaks and big potatoes along with some broccoli, mushrooms, onions and peppers.

  Then she showered, primped and walked next door. She went to his shop.

  “Well, look at you. Do you have a date tonight, miss?” Landry said with a sly grin.

  “I hope so. If you’ll do the steaks on the grill, I’ll make the rest of our dinner. And I have a bottle of champagne.”

  He made a face. “I’ll definitely toast the finished book with you, then you can have the rest of the bottle.”

  She laughed. “That’s exactly why I bought a small bottle. I’m going to go see the puppies while you finish up.”

  “Those puppies are big enough to go outside for a little while with Lady as long as you can keep an eye on them.”

  “Otis, want to help me babysit?” Kaylee said and Otis joined her immediately.

  The puppies were probably about six weeks old and had gotten to that chubby, adorable stage where they would knock themselves over just trying to bark. She watched them wrestle and nip and roll around while Lady just wandered the yard in bliss, free at last, ignoring them completely. The germ of an idea was trying to break out, but Kaylee was a little too busy chasing puppies to let it come through.

  When Landry joined her in the yard, he began to pick up the puppies, one at a time, blowing in their faces, snuggling them and laughing at their cuteness.

  “Will they be ready to leave Lady by Christmas?” she asked.

  “I think so, but the shelter and I have decided, no Christmas puppies. They’ll post pictures and take applications for the new year. Too many people get puppies for their kids for Christmas and then when it doesn’t work out, they’re neglected. They can go to their new homes after Christmas, if the offers hold. And speaking of going home...” He looked at her over the head of the puppy he held. “We’ve avoided that subject...”

  “Not intentionally,” she said. “Let’s talk about it over dinner.”

  They settled the puppies in the pen with Lady and chose to have dinner at Landry’s house since he had the barbecue. She finished cooking in his kitchen while he grilled the steaks.

  When they sat down to dinner, he raised a glass to her and said, “Here’s to your finished book.”

  “At last,” she said.

  “And, here’s to a divorce,” he said.

  In shock, she didn’t lift her glass. “What? It can’t be all done!”

  “No, not for weeks yet. But Laura and I have settled on the terms, she signed and notarized the settlement agreement and it’s sitting in a big stack of cases waiting for a judge. It might take as long as three months, but probably not even three weeks, if there’s no counteroffer or contesting. The important thing is, it’s been negotiated and it’s ready to be approved.”

  “How do you feel about that?”

  “I feel surprisingly good with it. I gave up hoping she’d miss me years ago. I don’t have any regrets. It was time.”

  “She’ll blame me, of course,” Kaylee said.

  “She can’t really blame anyone but herself,” he said. “But I take equal responsibility. I didn’t try that hard. Not only did I let her run away, I realize that I ran away, too.”

  “Even though you don’t seem to be upset, I’m sorry this happened to
you. I remember being very angry and torn up by my divorce. Slightly different circumstances, maybe, but it was no day at the beach.”

  “The big question is, what about us?” he asked. “What do you want to happen with us?”

  “I want us to stay in love forever,” she said. “It’s just that I don’t know what to do with our reality. My home is in Newport and I love it there. Plus, it’s my mother’s house and I wouldn’t even consider giving it up. And while my work is pretty transportable, yours is not.”

  “So, the question is, can two people who love each other maintain a close relationship when they have separate lives? Separate homes?”

  “You already tried that once, Landry.”

  “No, I don’t think I did. Trying would have had us a lot more balanced—winters in the south, summers in the north? Every other month? Three or four days here, three or four days there? I think there are many options. As long as we both have the same goal. But first, the priority is getting through Christmas.”

  “I’m sorry, but I just want Christmas behind me.”

  “Don’t apologize, Kaylee. I understand. I do have one suggestion. Why don’t you try writing about it? Write the Christmas that would make you feel better.”

  “That would involve impossible and magical things,” she said.

  “Don’t rule it out,” he suggested. “Write it in.”

  * * *

  Kaylee wasn’t at all surprised that her thoughts were constantly tuned in to the loss of her mother and often to Mallory as well. She kept wondering how she was getting along. She’d heard from Mel that Mallory’s mother had passed away and while arrangements were being made, she was with the next-door neighbors—the family of her friend—who had taken her in. Mel hoped that would work out for another couple of weeks, at least through Christmas. But if there was a problem with that, Mel was going to find room for her with their family.

  In the dark of night when she couldn’t sleep, lying in Landry’s strong, comforting arms, there were times Kaylee couldn’t hold back her tears. She tried to keep her crying silent, but he always knew and would pull her close and whisper soothing words. “It’s going to be all right.” She often thought that if she could have just five minutes with her mother, she could live on happily. She was astonished by how desperately she still missed her.